Russell Davies

watch your lexical density

Recognise this? It's a tagcloud anaylsis of Steve Jobs' speech at Macworld created by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and detailed here.

And this is Bill Gates' at CES. Bill loves to say 'great'. Almost never says 'boom' though. Something like this might be a good way of making sure you're saying what you think you are. But perhaps more interesting, and certainly worth using to find out if you're writing understandble presentations are the language-assesment tools they found at UsingEnglish. You can probably imagine what lexical density means and wouldn't be surprised that Jobs had a lower score than BIll. But I thought the Gunning Fox Index was worth thinking about too.

incoherent rambling

I went to the lovely BBC Studio GC (pictured) yesterday to do an interview with the BBC Wales Mousemat programme about blogs and that. I think it'll be on Sunday afternoon if you're interested. Or even if you're not. Or you'll be able to listen again for a week in a BBC-stylee.

in memoriam

Some bugger nicked my bike today. Which is coincidentally, also the day I thought I'd take a picture of it because I thought it looked nice in the snow. It's not a special bike, just the cheapest second-hand one I could find because I assumed it would get nicked. But of course that's precisely the kind of bike it's hard to find, because most decent shops won't deal in second-hand bikes because so many of them are stolen. So I'm annoyed. Bugger.

UPDATE: It was lost but now is found. My bike turned up. Hurrah. I found it abandoned in Soho, like it had been used for a ram-raid. Many thanks for the kind wishes and especially to Paul who offered me his old bike. (Which frankly I still quite fancy because I suspect his fitness may transfer to me in a Billy's Boots style scenario.)

sausage wins

Marcus wins the vote. Almost 600 people voted and it's this close:

I just want to say I'm proud to have taken part in a great match and I'm just sorry to have let all those great bacon fans down. Best fans in the world. Best wishes to Marcus as the competition continues and I'm looking forward to coming back next year with more focus and determination.

power chords and gnarliness

There's a fantastic podcast/interview here with top science fiction author Rudy Rucker. Two bits of language appropriation stuck out for me.

He talks about gnarly computation, using gnarly to  "suggest a kind of pattern characteristic of living beings, somewhere between simple symmetry and total chaos". That might be what I'm trying to get at when I talk about the complexity brands should have. (Quote from here.)

And he talks about SF power chords, based on those riffy, powerful chords heavy metal bands use. He's getting at the really big hitting, genre-defining ideas that sometimes seem a bit cheesy but actually always work. For SF he lists them as:

blaster guns, spaceships, time machines, aliens, telepathy, flying saucers, warped space, faster-than-light travel, holograms, immersive virtual reality, robots, teleportation, endless shrinking, levitation, antigravity, generation starships, ecodisaster, blowing up Earth, pleasure-center zappers, mind viruses, the attack of the giant ants, and the fourth dimension

It'd be worth thinking about what the power chords are in whatever you're working on - and are you just avoiding them because it's unfashionable?

inspire

Bobbie Johnson, has started a meme about five blogs which inspire him - beyond his normal professional interest. And he's been kind enough to include me, which I'm regarding as a tag and I'm taking up the challenge. What makes it harder is he's included quite a few blogs that I'd have put on my list, so now I have to think harder. Curse thinking harder. It's also an opportunity to confess to some minor stalking, in the same way that Bobbie's admitted an to obsession with Jan Chipchase (which I share). It was also hard to try and decide what falls outwith professional interest for a dilettante planner. But this is my list.

Anne has suggested that Matt (below) and Schulze And Webb are who I wanted to be when I grew up. She has a point. If only I'd applied myself more. Schulze and Webb's blog is pulse laser, and it's full of original, off-centre ideas about product design, technology and the world, all expressed with charm and imagination. I get quite fan-boy about it. Embarrassing really. For typically instructive and fascinating entries look here and here.

I love blackbeltjones because of Matt's noticing. It's noticing from a splendid angle. He spots all sorts of revealing little things, on and off the web, and every now and then he'll post a big burst of splendid thinking.

I suspect the other thing that keeps me going back to Matt and S&W is the stuff they're thinking about is always new, always changing. The stuff I spend much of my professional life thinking about doesn't change much - cars, sport, shoes, coffee - established categories where everyone knows the rules, the good moves and the bad moves. There's decent fun to be had in finding new approaches to the old problems but it's not as captivating as inventing new categories and new rules, as these folk are doing.   

I met Anne from i like today. First time ever. But it feels like I've known her for years because you get this really clear sense of who she is from what she writes about what she likes. And she has immaculate taste, you're going to like everything she likes. And then there's her other sites which are also magnificent; Nothing To See Here and This is  M. Sasek. When I started blogging 'i like' was what I wanted to make.

There's nothing as enthusing as enthusiasm, especially informed enthusiasm and Music Thing has all this. If it was just musical gear-porn it would be damn good, obviously, but it's more than that, it's also the best odd musical bits of youtube and genius musical miscellanea like 'how to play music with barbed wire and chainsaws' and features like Tiny Music.

Alex Ross always makes me feel inadequate. But in a good way. His passion for all sorts of music is incredibly infectious, nudging me towards brilliant sounds in exactly the way my music A level didn't. Because of him I've listened to Stockhausen's Helicopter Quartet three times. He'll write something dense about the Eroica and then end it with  "In short, Beethoven kicks it". (Though I have to say Beeker's giving him some decent competition.)

So there we are. Five inspiring sites. To be honest I'm slightly hoping none of the people I've linked to read this. We might all find my fanboyness a bit embarrassing. Anyway. It's done now.

more ideas, less stuff

I've slightly foolishly agreed to participate in the D&AD President's Lecture 'Branding And Environmental Issues Forum'. As is normal with these things they've not given me any clue about what they'd like me to talk about but I thought I'd better start thinking about it.

I signed up for this, not because I'm a huge expert in Branding And Environmental Issues but because I think I should be. I think we all should be. And this seemed to be the kind of kick up the arse I'd need. So I'm going to try and spend some time thinking and writing about these things and hopefully we'll do some thinking about it together.

Given this is such a contentious, highly emotive issue maybe I should lay out some of my starting beliefs, though I'm sure they'll change once I actually learn something.

So. In an ideal world I think a benevolent race of super-beings should arrive from behind the moon and make us do the kinds of stuff we actually need to do to avoid environmental catastrophe - specifically start consuming vastly less energy. But, in the absence of benevolent aliens, we're going to be limited to what we can persuade people to do themselves or to vote for. And given what people are like that's a bit more constrained. Obviously as climate change gets worse people will do more and will need less persuading but, right now, our best chances for mitigating climate change are by substantially re-adjusting the priorities of our consumer economy not by trying to make people revolt against cars and fridges.

That will probably strike some people as horribly cynical and insufficient but it's what seems do-able to me now.

Here are some things that seem like interesting starting points:

John's been thinking about this for a while, and he obviously knows his brand onions, so he's well worth listening to. His speculation that our consumption mania will suddenly just disappear in the way 'Victorian values' disappeared in the 50s and 60s would be nice to believe. It's possible. I can imagine it in bits of Western Europe. There is a sort of logic that we'll all pop out of the top of Maslow's Heirarchy Of Needs and return to simplicity, but I suspect unfettered capitalism is cannier than to allow that. And I'm also reminded that a slice of the affluent middle-class has always longed for a return to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle. As long as they don't have to go without fine cheese. So if this anything new? I'm not sure we can combat climate change by dragging the whole world up through Maslow in a kind of accelerated lifestyle gentrification, but there might be something in it. And John's much smarter than me so if he says it's happening I'll just capitulate and agree.

There's also a big pile of should-be-read conversation here.

Innocent talk about Fast Moving Sustainable Goods. And I think their combination of ambition and conscience is probably the most effective route for your average consumer brand at the moment. You can't achieve a lot if no-one's heard of you or no-one buys your product. (Assuming all the reality caveats above.) Quite a few brands are doing the same thing - trying to create new products without consuming irresponsible amounts of energy.

But I've been wondering if there's a way of satisfying that nagging consumer impulse merely through the supply of ideas, not through the supply of new stuff.

Our fundamental issue, I guess, is that people are consuming too much. By which we mean too much stuff. Physical stuff. Stuff that requires energy to be made and un-made. So we wouldn't mind people consuming per se, if they consumed less actual stuff and consumed more that was made only of ideas. Which, of course, is what a lot of branding tries to do - and is often criticised for - we try and add value to a product by adding abstract, non-physical stuff; ideas, associations, images, memories. And the transmission of these things involves some energy, but less than creating a lot of physical stuff.

So I'm wondering whether we can persuade people to consume more branded ideas and less branded stuff, in the same way we might sometimes be able to substitute connected technology for cars.

Think about packaging as an example. At the moment we try and sell stuff by wrapping it in an expensive, wasteful but desirable bit of packaging. What if the packaging could be kept to a minimum but the sales imperative could be served through a desirable idea embedded in the product, with a minimum of physical stuff? (And yes I know the ideal solution here is not to encourage the consumption of more products but see reality caveats above.)

Perhaps the next stage is to wonder whether all those base consumer habits can be served just through the exchange of ideas. Can an old product be made to feel new through some kind of brand mechanism - so that no energy is consumed but someone still buys something and someone sells something. Does that make sense?

A t-shirt might be a good example. How do we make this work with a t-shirt? How can a t-shirt company satisfy your consumer need for a new t-shirt without having to actually make a new t-shirt, package a new t-shirt or transport it to you? Can we persuade you to be happy with your old t-shirt or somehow refresh your old t-shirt so it feels new? And can we make money doing so? Can there be some exchange of value?

Can we create a brand world built with more ideas and less stuff? Can we stop using ideas to sell more stuff and use ideas as a substitute for stuff?

I'm probably being hopelessly naive, but it's a thought

(And, while we're at it I should also point at two bits of essential reading; World Changing and Bruce Sterling's Viridian Design Movement which I think is offering the most persuasive thinking in this whole area - 'Creating Irresistible Demand For A Global Atmosphere Upgrade'.

Like I say I'm just thinking outloud, but I'm hoping to learn.

how long?

how long before this brilliant site, intended as an auto-generated critique of advertising (via plasticbag) spawns an idea someone will actually run? I can imagine lots of these running as one of those vapid corporate ads you find in The Economist.

where ideas come from

Rodcorp points at a splendid piece about Ronald S. Burt and his thoughts about where ideas come from.

Two things resonated with me: "People who live in the intersection of social worlds," Mr. Burt writes, "are at higher risk of having good ideas." I like that and I think it's why I'm so fond of the way blogging lets you discover new social worlds.

And this passage : Mr. Burt's theory may offer some caution for people who have been trying to enlarge their social networks on the Web by using "social software" at sites like Friendster, Ryze and MySpace. The idea underlying these computer hookups is that the better connected you are, the more valuable social capital you will have. But Mr. Burt's work suggests the opposite: expanding your network may fill in the structural holes, eliminating their creative benefits. By linking everyone together indiscriminately, it becomes increasingly difficult to reach outside your regular contacts and surprise anyone with a new idea. : reminds me of Richard's theory that reading all the usual planning books is no use to him, offers no competitive advantage. Instead, he tries to read, 'weird shit'.

at long last maple syrup

Okey dokey folks. Here's the feedback on Account Planning School of the Web, assignment 11, The Maple Syrup Imbroglio. Apologies for the delay in getting this done.

Reasons For The Delay In Getting This Done

1. I've been a little busy and rather daunted by 50 entries.

2. I've been having a small moment of turmoil about whether this whole thing is worth doing or not. About whether I'm helping or hindering you all in the pursuit of planning excellence/acceptability.

Conclusions About Whether This Is Worth Doing

On the whole I think it is. As long as we all remember a few simple things:

1. I can't teach you how to be a planner with this blog. That's not what this is about. It's just some fun, a place to hang out, support each other and practice some stuff. I can't walk you through really complicated problems, I can't help teach you how to analyze complex data (I can't do that in the real world so there's no way I can do it on a blog). There's no substitute for real world training. And real world training is no substitute for real world experience. That's the only thing than can teach you planning. Decades and decades of real world experience, which will leave you bitter, twisted and emotionally stunted, like me.

2. But there are some good things we can do here:

We can practise the skills of precis and compression. Practise building compact, memorable language that compresses nuance, emotion and complexity into stuff people can remember and use.

We can learn from each other. I think that's probably most of the value here. Not what I say, but what you can learn from seeing each others stuff.

We can learn what makes an interesting idea. In going through all the maple syrup stuff I found myself writing 'interesting' a lot. Because you're in the business of providing your colleagues, clients and customers with useful and directional thinking stuff. It's not enough to be right. You've also got to be interesting. That's something we can learn here.

And, perhaps most importantly we can learn how to throw ideas out into the world without worrying about it. That's something useful.

Anyway. On with the feedback.

Overall

Most of the stuff was OK. No-one did enough good ones to get to be a winner but no-one did anything really terrible.

Common Problems

1. Most of you just didn't think hard enough. The places most of you ended up were incredibly, staggeringly obvious. Canada. Sweetness. Natural. A 6-year old could have got there in 5 minutes. (I know, I tried with Arthur.) This doesn't mean they're wrong, but think about the context. You're competing for attention, either here or with your colleagues, clients, customers or competitors. An obvious answer just isn't going to cut it.

2. You didn't spend enough time sweating the language. If you're going to be in an obvious territory you could at least find an interesting way of expressing it. Evocative language, words that go beyond the rational, something that conjures up memories or associations.

3. RTFQ. Please. I lay down incredibly simple rules for these things. And quite a lot of you just ignore them, either writing too much or adding all sorts of explanatory detail. I hope you're not ignoring the briefs you get from clients in the same way.

What I Did

I copied everything into one, large document. I stripped all the explanatory detail out from those who'd added it (RTFQ) and only looked at the first five answers from people who'd written more (RTFQ). Then I went through and wrote whatever occurred to me at the time. I'm sorry if that's a little perfunctory and brutal but it seemed the only way to cope with everything. And, as I say, I don't think the value you're looking for is in my feedback on your particular answer but in the whole body of stuff that everybody did.

Apologies if I've missed anyone out, misnamed anyone or transposed anything. I've become slightly copy and paste blind.

That's it. Here we go...

Julianna
maple syrup : naturally sweet.
maple syrup : a sweet sap.
maple syrup : real sweet.
maple syrup : the purest form of sweet.
maple syrup : nature’s elixir

Hmmm. None of those are wrong. 'Naturally sweet' is obviously an important territory. They’re just not very memorably expressed.

Beodosy
Maple syrup - extravenous health injection
Maple syrup - 10 litres healthy sap in one gulp
Maple syrup - extravagantly extra virgin
Maple syrup - Maple serum
Maple syrup - mother nature's milk

I like the use of words like extravenous and serum. Because they’re unusual in this context they stick out and draw the attention. Not sure I buy ‘mother nature’s milk’ maple syrup doesn’t seem very milky to me. I like the idea of extravagantly extra virgin, not quite sure what it means though.

Jonathan
Maple Syrup. Manitou's Ambrosia.
Maple Syrup. Worshipped by Canada on their flag.
Put an end to Bee Slavery with Maple Syrup.
Maple Syrup. Sweet. With Taste.
Pancakes taste like Maple Syrup.

‘Put an end to bee slavery’ is funny. Though arguably it’s more of a creative idea than a strategic one. (Though that’s a horribly blurry line). I guess ‘Manitou’s Ambrosia’ is a version of Mother Nature’s Milk but it’s better somehow. A. because Manitou is an interesting and specific word. B. because Ambrosia doesn’t have the same instant connotations as milk. There’s something interesting in the flag thing – but could you make it stronger? Like ‘the only condiment great enough to make it onto a national flag’. Not sure that’s great, but you see what I mean.

John
Makes a pancake taste like a pancake
Essence of Canada distilled
The flavour of a Canadian autumn
What people bring back from Canada to prove they've been
Tate & Lyle is from Mars maple syrup is from Venus


I like ‘the flavour of a Canadian autumn’. Nice and evocative. Goes beyond the rational. ‘Essence of Canada’ is clearly a good thought but could it be more interesting somehow?

Brett
Maple Syrup.  Nature’s sugar substitute
Maple Syrup. The new vanilla, because vanilla is so vanilla.
The reigning Queen of the condiment drawer – Maple Syrup.
Just try to be angry pouring Maple Syrup… told you.
Maple Syrup.  Because breakfast shouldn’t be boring.

‘Because vanilla is so vanilla’ is clever, but I’m not sure it’s enough. I could see it as a line of copy, but it’s not a strategic thought.  I like ‘just try to be angry’. I like the way it makes you imagine yourself pouring and it’s unexpected territory. Very good that one.

Lauren
Autumn, distilled.
Save the Earth, Tap a Tree.
Maple Syrup: Nature’s Sugar Daddy
Maple Syrup: all sweet, no saccharine
Putting sugar to shame since the first Thanksgiving

‘Autumn distilled’ is good. ‘Save the Earth. Tap a Tree’ is nicely put. I like a little alliteration. Might be a bit of over-claim? And not enough of an over-claim to be obvious hyperbole. I like the way the last one says something anti-sugar and evokes some settler heritage.

Javier
Stops your belly and heart from killing each other.
Less guilt per millilitre.
The anti-aging system that works from the inside.
The doom of dull breakfasts and cancer.
Helps you enjoy breakfast on the bed.

You’re tackling healthiness in some interesting ways here. ‘Less guilt per millilitre’ is a good idea. And the medical language catches the eye, because it’s unexpected. But…I think it’s too medical, it’s too distant from the naturalness and pleasure you want from maple syrup.

Jean
Maple syrup – Sticks everything else together 


Maple syrup – Lavatic and anti-asthmatic
Maple syrup – Sweetener drained for E-numbers
Maple syrup – Pioneer culture on a bottle 


Maple syrup – With pancakes as a nice condiment

Again, ‘lavatic and anti-asthmatic’ seems really clinical and medical. Not right for such a simply natural thing. And I don’t know what ‘lavatic’ means. You should stick to words that most people understand, unless you have a really good reason not to. Pioneer culture in a bottle is interesting. That’s got good associations (and I guess some bad ones) but it is instantly evocative. I’m suddenly imagining plaid shirts, axes and women in bonnets.

Adrian
Maple Syrup. Breakfast's Best Friend (BBF)
Maple Syrup. 24-hour morning glory.
Maple Syrup. Honey without the sting.
Maple Syup. Maple's natural lubricant.
Maple Syrup. Why Canadian girls are prettier.

Breakfast’s Best Friend is too obvious. I don’t think making an acronym qualifies as an idea. ‘Honey without the sting’ is nice. Though most people buying honey aren’t really worried about getting stung. (Or am I being too picky?) ‘Why Canadian girls are prettier’ is nice and lateral but I can see that being a creative idea you might get to, not a strategy you want to start with. What’s the truth behind that? Could you get to one? If you could rationalise that somehow (in the silly advertising sense of ‘rationalise’) you might get to something better.

Noise
Maple Syrup: Eating sap is sweeter than having hives.
Maple Syrup: What bees dream of.
Why Canadians don't care when Americans make fun of them.
Maple Syrup: Sweeter than oak.
Maple Syrup: Family Breakfast Comfort Anytime Anywhere

‘Eating sap is better than having hives’ is funny. Not sure it’s a good strategic idea, but I like funny. And I can imagine something interesting coming out of ‘what bees dream of’, but again it’s not really a positioning idea for maple syrup. Why would bees dream about maple syrup?

Jonny
Maple Syrup.  Pancake lubrication.
From trees, over oceans to the tip of your tongue. 
Welcome to gloopy indulgence.   
Make breakfasts stickier
Maple syrup - tree adrenalin

I like ‘gloopy indulgence’. Evocative language (reminds you of the feeling, the sense-world of maple syrup) and indulgence is the beginnings of strategic idea. It makes maple syrup into a little luxury. That’s good. Pancake lubrication has something to it too. The idea that maple syrup is the anti-dry. I don’t understand tree adrenalin.

Dasha
The first candy of the day
Canada's treat for the world
The Morning sweetner
Tree juice
"Zinc" Maple

I like ‘tree juice’. It’s not really what I’d call a strategic idea but it’s just a funny, quirky idea. Maybe you need to work out why tree juice would be a good thing. The rest of them are a little too generic. Lots of things could be the morning sweetener or the first candy of the day. Not so many things could be Canada’s treat for the world. But some could be. You’ve not gone far enough with these.

Gill
Vermont Viagra
Baby Echinacea
Time for Brunch
Eat American.
The conossieur’s choice of sweetener

These are mostly too broad and generic. And if I remember, you tried to get around this by attaching an explanatory sentence or two with each. But that’s not the point. What we’re trying to learn here is compression. How to create something short and memorable that contains all the stuff you feel like putting in the explanatory sentence. For example, ‘Eat American’, on it’s own is no good, but I think you explained that it’s based on the fact that you only get Maple Syrup from N. America (USA and Canada). That’s a little more interesting. So how do you get that into four or five words? That’s the challenge here. Vermont Viagra and Baby Echinacea are intriguing word-bundles but they don’t tell me enough, how could you extend them and make them make sense?

Ryan
A breakfast bastion against the high fructose corn syrup blitzkrieg.
A small revolution for idealistic waffles
A delicious diamond within the sweetener landscape
Nature's crafted diamond of sweeteners
Because caviar tastes bad on pancakes

I like that you’re trying more evocative, memorable language. But I think the language might have overtaken the thinking. I don’t know what ‘a small revolution for idealistic waffles’ is telling me, though I like how it sounds. Same for delicious diamond. Why is maple syrup like a diamond? Combating corn syrup is good though.

Lauren
Maple Syrup. The natural coffee sweetener.
Maple Syrup. Worth getting up for.
Maple Syrup. Naturally good. (No artificial ingredients required.)
Maple Syrup. Sweeten up your sex life.
Maple Syrup. Your faithful sidekick at every meal.

I think you’re the only person to explicitly mention usage as a coffee sweetener, so that’s good thinking, suggesting new usage (new to some people at least) is often a good thing. Some of the others are too generic – how sweeten up your sex life? Why faithful sidekick? Ketchup could be your faithful sidekick. Or salt. Or lots of things. And lots of things are worth getting up for. And are naturally good. You need to think of things which could only be about maple syrup.

Paul
Maple Syrup. Gooey goodness from sugar shacks, not laboratories.
Maple Syrup. Natural sweetness. No bee stings.
Maple Syrup. Paint a masterpiece on your pancakes.
Maple Syrup. Secret ingredient of grandmas' goodies and hot toddys.
Maple Syrup. Sometimes I put it in my hair

Gooey goodness – good words. Stick in my head. That’s important. ‘Paint a masterpiece on your pancakes’ is good because it’s something no-one else has mentioned. An actual behavour that actual people do, and quite enjoy. Encouraging unusual usage is a good thing. And the evocative power of grandmas and hot toddys is good too. It gets to emotion and memory and stuff.

Tiffany
Maple Syrup: Time is in the essence
Maple Syrup: Sweet simplicity
Maple Syrup: Connoissyrupy
Maple Syrup: Made by trees
Maple Syrup: Makes virtuous waffles

If I remember correctly this was another set that had explanatory sentences attached. And you can tell. Because these phrases on their own are too thin. I can see that there might be an idea in ‘time is in the essence’ - something to do with the time it takes to make the maple syrup and that must be good somehow. But you’ve not compressed that into this phrase so it just leaves me bemused. And there’s something memorable about Connoissyrupy too, but it’s not an idea, or if it is, you’ve not explained it to me.

Max
Maple syrup, the daughter of Sap.
Maple syrup, the only thing Canada beats the USA at.
Maple syrup. Earth's goldmine.
One bottle a day makes the doctor coming back.
Maple syrup, the 2.0 of syrup.

Don’t understand the daughter of Sap, or why that would be a good thing. The Canada v USA thing is too predictable, contentious and not true. Earth’s goldmine is interesting but suggests ‘the ground’ not ‘the trees’. Don’t understand the Doctor thing. 2.0 of syrup is an interesting phrase but I’m not sure what you mean.

Maria
The Mr. Hyde of healthy breakfasts.
Rise and slow down.
The best kept secret of morning people.
Underground honey.
Resistance against artificiality.

I like ‘rise and slow down’. It’s a provocative thought and seems appropriate for the ‘pace’ of syrup. That’s an interesting emotional territory. Not sure I understand underground honey but I like the sound of it, if you were here I’d ask you to explain more because there might be something in it. Resistance against artificiality seems to be an unnecessarily complicated way of saying natural.

Sebastian
Makes Mondays Sundays.
Tops everything.
Made in Trees.
Make up the wake up.
The only thing Canada is famous for.

‘Made In Trees’ isn’t especially original or motivating but it’s very boldly, nicely and simply stated so it ends up being quite powerful. More of a tagline than an idea, but it’s connotations are interesting. ‘Tops everything’ is actually a good strategy, one that not many people have thought about – let’s get out of pancakes and point out that you can use maple syrup on all sorts of stuff. Good one.

Hillary
Maple syrup. Bees everywhere are jealous.
Maple syrup. Make mornings sweeter.
Maple syrup. Nature's brew on tap.
Maple syrup. Sweet the way nature intended.
Maple syrup. Not just for lumberjacks.

Mostly too generic. Nature. Sweetness. Canada. The same territories as everyone else but not especially memorably done. So, not wrong, but not brilliant.

Ed
Keeps breakfast fun.
Too good to be used only for pancakes and waffles.
Guilty pleasure trumps nutrition.
As good for you as a sweet syrup can be (i.e. no additives, perservatives).
Flavoured maple syrup: a world of possibility!

As above. Nothing very original. No great phrases or evocations. Not bad but not great.

Marj
Maple Syrup. Your new ally in bed.
Maple Syrup. Something healthy the kids won’t hate your for.
Maple Syrup. Yes, sweet can rhyme with healthy.
Maple Syrup. Found by mistake, thank God for the pancakes.
Maple Syrup. It’s hip and hot in your meals.

Don’t understand the first one. ‘Something healthy’ etc is good in that it acknowledges how people think about buying foodstuffs. ‘Sweet can rhyme with healthy’ is a decent effort at making the sweet+healthy idea more memorable but I’m not sure it quite comes off. There’s something good in ‘found by mistake’ but I don’t think the last bit helps.

Liam
makes 'bad' stuff even better.
is from a tree, ergo good for you. You might even say it's a real 'Treet'. Sorry.
rocks, because you're not allowed Mars bars for breakfast.
is sugar you can eat
because bees sting! They suck!! Down with honey!!!

These seem more like the notes you might write while thinking about writing propositions, rather than the actual propositions. It might be that you’ll end up somewhere good, but you’re not there yet.

Rafakir
Sweet blood of Quebec
The borders of Canada are made of syrup.
Music to bee's ears
A Canadian way to reach kitchen's tables around the world
One third of The Holy Trinity of Breakfast

‘Sweet blood of Quebec’ is a attention-grabbing bundle of words but I’m not sure what you mean, and I’m not sure the link of blood and maple syrup is positive. Don’t understand ‘the borders of Canada are made of syrup’. And I think you’re assuming too much global breakfast table commonality on The Holy Trinity bit. I applaud your attempt to use different language and be a little lateral but I think you’re not rooted enough in solid strategic ideas.

Pikk
Omni-Sauce for tastier desserts
Maple syrup. Liquid candy for everyone
Grow strong with natural food- Maple syrup  from tree
(Spring) Lively time made sweetener. Enjoy the result- maple syrup
Maple Syrup. The taste sugar cane can’t compete.

I like Omni-Sauce. That’s an interesting new thought for maple syrup. Good new language. A little bit distant from Maple naturalness but I think it works. Liquid candy is sort of interesting too. But I’m not sure Liquid Candy is a good thing.

Clay
It’s tree juice.
It's an extra fancy morning.
No fructose, no corn, just syrup.
Sticky, wet, not yours…but okay to eat.
Tapped from old trees for the young at heart.

Tree juice is good. Simple. Fun. Memorable. ‘Extra fancy morning’ is good too. That little hint of luxury. Could it be more maple-y though? And no fructose etc is simple and clear. Not startlingly original but I guess that’s OK.

John
Unrefined Sweetener
Canada Gold
Tapping into Nature

I like Canada Gold, though it seems like more a brand name, it’d be a good one. In ploughing through this list, this is the first time I’ve actually felt hungry, like I could fancy some maple syrup. Maybe it’s coincidence but maybe it’s also because Canada Gold evokes something sensory about maple syrup – the colour. And that’s important.

Ted
Maple Syrup. Sweet taste from hard wood.
Maple Syrup. The sweet that sticks.
Maple Syrup. Pour on the love.
Maple Syrup. Authentic forest nectar.
Maple Syrup. From the great forest to your table.

‘Pour on the love’ sounds very 70s, but in a good way. I like that. It’s got behaviour and emotion. ‘Authentic forest nectar’ is good too. Lots of naturalness without saying nature, nature, nature. I’m not sure about sweet taste from hard wood – why would that be good?

Christos
Pancakes-escort.com
Maple Syrup… faster than honey, yet slower from the delay.
Canada’s second sweetest think, ladies first.
Sweet support for your immune system.
MAPLE & SYRUP. Can do as well as a cartoon for kids.

‘Pancakes-escort.com’ is a creative idea. The strategic idea would be something about maple syrup being the perfect accompaniment for pancakes. And hopefully if you wrote that you’d get to a better creative idea than pancakes-escort.com. But it’s not a bad strategic direction. Not sure I got the rest of them.

Daniel
Wherever you are, maple syrup tastes like home.
This is what happens when nature does the processing.
It's the Breakfast lubricant.
Without it, pancakes would almost be healthy.
Worth every cavity.

I like ‘when nature does the processing’ but could you explain what the good of that is? i.e. ‘When nature does the processing you get X’. Maple syrup tastes like home is nice too. 

Andreea
Maple syrup - the best way to make maple sugar.
Perfection and maple syrup making takes time.
Maple syrup on waffles - because you can't put salt on deserts.
Makes life sweeter. And apple sauce too.
Maple syrup - when you're tired of drawing resin from a tree

I like the thought about maple syrup taking time (as well as perfection). Perfection seems like a credible area for maple syrup because it’s so clear and unblemished and perfect.

Christian
MAPLE SYRUP : MARMITE ARCH-NEMESIS
THE REASON WHY CANADIANS ARE NOT AMERICANS
THE SEXY SIDE OF SUGAR
DON’T CUT THE TREES, DRINK THEM.
THE BELUGA OF SUGAR.

‘Drink the trees’ is a good idea. But do you drink maple syrup? Would ‘eat the trees’ work? Or ‘suck the trees’? Beluga of sugar is good and appropriate hyperbole too. It’s good when you get into the language of another world.

Stacy
Maple syrup- without it, it just isn’t breakfast.
Who said the best things in life don’t come from trees?
Pancake’s best friend.
Pour it on.
The best thing to happen to waffles since bacon.

No-one’s said the best things in life don’t come from trees have they? People’ve said that money doesn’t go on trees, is that what you were thinking of? These are OK, but more like stabs at interesting taglines than strategic communication ideas.

Dick
Maple syrup. Drip, Drizzle, Dribble then drool!
Pay your pancake the perfect compliment!
A good friend who always MAKES breakfast!
The maple tree: Its bark's alot worse than it's bite!
The reason bees sting!

These are the same as above. Decent lines but not communications ideas.

Thomas
"Maple Syrup is  S W E E T."
"Naturally sweet."
"What would pancakes be without it?"
"It brings out the flavor in ham."
"Maple Syrup--that Sweet sticky thing."

Same here actually.

Erik
Maple syrup. The Grand Cru of Syrups.
Maple syrup. Traditional signal for the coming of Spring.
Maple syrup. The “blood” of the maple tree.
Maple syrup. The other side of the sweet leaf of Canada.
Maple syrup. The Native American all-natural sweetener

Another blood example, just not sure blood is a parallel we want to draw. Grand Cru is doing a similar thing to Beluga. Quite nice. There’s definitely a thought in ‘coming of spring’ but you need to do more – what’s good about that for maple syrup? Is it the taste of spring or something?

Juan Pablo
Maple Syrup inside.
Maple Syrup, nature transfussion.
Maple Syrup, sticky energy
Maple Syrup or the strength of trees
Maple Syrup, the future generation of movers & shakers.

Sticky energy is an interesting collision of words. Is there something in going further than this and positioning maple syrup as an energy food. I’m not saying it’s right but at least it’s something new compared to all this natural, sweet talk.

Daniel
Maple Syrup – the DNA of our nature.
Maple Syrup – makes everything glow.
Maple Syrup – top dressings for all seasons.
Maple Syrup – Mother Nature’s sweetest gift.
Maple Syrup – bee grateful for it.

The last one’s just a pun. Remember this isn’t about writing the line, it’s about the idea. Sure it’s got to be well-written, pithy, memorable, but the idea is the main thing. ‘Makes everything glow’ is the beginnings of an idea. The DNA thing’s not right.

Bogdana
The preferred pancake make-up.
Only thing you’ll see place Canada on top of the US.
Use to befriend your taste buds and toast.
Every suicidal pancake dreams of drowning in it.
Bliss for bland batter.

‘Bliss for bland batter’ might be going too far in the memorability stakes, but the basic thought is good – an antidote to boring pancakes. ‘Pancake make-up’ is a new way of thinking about condimentiness. The Canada/US thing is just a cheap shot. Good, imaginative language here but not enough ideas.

Lauren
Maple Syrup – it’s only natural.
The sweetener with flavor.
Syrup is product of nature’s perfect balance.
Sap on tap.
Maple Syrup - Three centuries of tradition in every bite

‘Sap on tap’ is good and simple. (Has someone else done that?) But you’re not telling me why I’d want to eat sap. The rest are OK but not great.

Rhea
Maple syrup is sweet by nature.
Life can be sour; maple syrup makes it sweet.
Maple syrup is sweetness that sticks.
Maple syrup.  Keeping America sweet.
Maple syrup is the sweetest thing from Canada.

All five of these are about sweetness, basically just repeating the same thought 5 times. You need to explore more thoughts and directions. What else is interesting and desirable about maple syrup?

Mathias
We don’t care how you use it, as long as you enjoy it.
Pour some sunshine. Taste the leaves.
Vintage vein.
Life’s too short not to.
It’s a piece of crave.

‘Pour some sunshine’ is good. Says nature. Evocative. You don’t need ‘taste the leaves’. The others are too blah.

Andrew
Maple Syrup.  Slave labor free sugar tradition
Maple Syrup.  The original snocone flavour
Improving foreign dishes since 1620
Maple Syrup.  Accepted from breakfast to desert
The only tree cutting not protested

The first one is bold – but do you really want to be brining up slavery in this context? Seems to be trivialising or at least inappropriate. There’s something in bringing up snow and the taste associations with snow and forests and stuff. And there’s something in tree cutting you don’t object too, but it’s probably more of an executional idea than a strategic one.

Alex
Maple Syrup. Thicker than both blood and water.
Maple Syrup. The Tree’s Giving. 
Maple Syrup. Fortify your stomach.
Maple Syrup. Maplifest Destiny.
Maple Syrup. Slow and steady wins breakfast too.
Maple Syrup. Gold things come to those who wait.

Why do so many people think it’s a good idea to raise the image of blood? I like the pace of life ideas in the last two but I don’t think you need the gold pun. Maybe I don’t mind it. Not sure. Slow and steady wins breakfast is good.

Raja
Thank god it is not sugar, It is sweeter yet
Maple Syrup for Men: Aphrodisiac on your supermarket shelf
Maple Syrup: Keep's you going, the healthy way
Safe on your heart, good for the immune system
Sweet as Honey – But the Maple tree lives on

I think you’re the only person to raise the aphrodisiac possibility. That’s at least an original position. The rest are OK but a little obvious.

Jonathan
Inspires tree hugging
Proudly Canadian
It’s not syrup unless it’s maple syrup
The spread that spreads itself
There’s more to it than pancakes

Tree hugging is a new thought. The rest are too generic, they could be about almost anything. Does it spread itself?

Irene
Maple syrup - Natures smoothie
Tap into taste.   
Make a difference, treat the taste buds.
Savour the flavour.
Treat your food to a goluptious cuddle.

Nature’s smoothie is maybe an idea, not sure it quite works though, maple syrup isn’t very smoothie like. It’s more like Nature’s Desert Topping. Savour the flavour is just a rhyme. The cuddle idea is good though. Could do with a little more wordsmithing.

Claire
Maple Syrup - Pancakes are naked without it
Lose weight like Beyonce - go maple
Forget chocolate, maple's your staple
It comes from trees but please - pour it on!
Maple Syrup - Dress for dessert.

These are taglines, not strategic ideas. Except maybe the Beyonce one. They’re not bad but you need to work back to the bigger idea.

Casey
Maple Syrup.  Making everything situation sticky.
The sticky solution for male sexual healing.
Maple Syrup.  Making pancakes edible since 1492.
America’s original agricultural enterprise.
Nature’s sweet reward for hard work.

Seems like stickiness is an interesting territory, but you’ve not made it a positive yet. I like ‘making pancakes edible since 1492’. The edible bit is a funny poke at pancakes and the 1492 bit evokes some pioneery, heritage-y imagery.

There we go. All done. Hope that was useful. Huge thanks to everyone for participating. It is rather marvelous that you do that. Especially those of you who don't normally write in English. I'll get the 'tell the future something' thoughts up soon and a new assignment next week.